Another Adventure
by TARDISkeeper
Summary: for lack of a better title...  Rated T to be safe.  PLEASE REVIEW.
1. Her Worst Nightmares

**Summary: Rose gets drugged. The Doctor finds the one who did it and plans to causes them pain. But some things get in the way, like getting captured.**

**Setting: Set after Dalek.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. I wish I did. But I don't.**

**Author's Notes: This is written as "they're just friends" but it can be read as Nine/Rose if you prefer (which I certainly do).**

**Also, the POV switches around a bit, and that might get confusing. So for Chapter One, it's Rose's POV, and for Chapters Two and Three, it's the Doctor's POV.**

**If you hate it, review. If you love it, review. If you really don't care about it at all, review. Just please review. :)**

**Sort of spoilers for Dalek. **

Chapter 1: Her Worst Nightmares

Rose was having a wonderful time.

She was at an alien restaurant with the Doctor, and he was telling her stories of his travels, many of which were quite funny. She almost didn't mind that their food hadn't come yet. What was taking the waiter so long?

She reached for her drink – a fizzy blue liquid that the Doctor said tasted sort of like root beer – but the Doctor grabbed it from her.

"Hang on, Rose," he said, pulling out the sonic screwdriver. "There's something about this drink…"

"How can you tell?" Rose asked, grabbing it back. "It's just a drink! What could be wrong with it?"

She took a gulp. The Doctor's eyes widened.

"Rose, no! It's–" was the last thing she heard before she blacked out.

When she woke up, she was in a strange bed and her head was throbbing.

"Doctor?" she called. A strange man looked up from where he was sitting next to her bed.

"That's me," he said. "You were out for a while there. We weren't sure if you were going to make it."

_No,_ Rose thought. This was wrong. This man was not the Doctor. She looked around and realized that she was in a hospital.

Well, okay, he wasn't _her_ Doctor.

"There's a man," she said. "He's tall, he has short, dark hair. He has a leather jacket. Oh, and he has a Northern accent."

"Was he the one who blew up the building?" the strange doctor asked her.

"Wha… no!" she realized that this man might not know what had happened and simply asked, "Where is he?"

"What's his name?" the man asked. Rose had no idea what to say. What would the Doctor have said? It depended on where and when they were.

"He's called the Doctor, but sometimes he goes by John Smith. Where am I? And what day is it?"

"You're in Cardiff," the man said. "It's the 17th of November, 2005. You've been in a coma for over half a year, ever since that building exploded. You're lucky to be alive."

That was impossible, she wanted to tell him. She'd been traveling with the Doctor that whole time.

"What about John Smith?" she asked. "He's probably been asking to see me."

"No, sorry," the man said. "We have no record of anyone by that name wanting to see you."

"What about the Doctor? That's what he calls himself," she said desperately. He had to have come at some point…

"No, I'm sorry," the doctor told her.

Maybe it had been a clone of her in the coma. And now the clone was off traveling with the Doctor, while she was stuck here on Earth. It sounded crazy, but since she'd met the Doctor, she'd believe almost anything. And it would certainly explain why the Doctor hadn't come to see her…

Suddenly her mother burst into the room.

"Oh, Rose, you're all right!" she exclaimed. "I was so worried…"

"Mum, where's the Doctor?" Rose asked quickly.

"Well, he's right there, of course," her mother said, pointing to the doctor in the chair.

"No, Mum, not _a_ doctor. _The_ Doctor. Capital D," Rose said.

"What do you mean?" her mother asked.

"You _know _what I mean!" Rose said, exasperated. "The _Doctor._ Who I go traveling with? The alien. With the TARDIS, the police box. Remember?"

"Ah," the doctor said. "I think I understand. Rose, you may have hallucinated while you were in your coma. The things that happened may have seemed real, but it was just your imagination."

"What? No!" Rose yelled. "It was absolutely real! I saw the end of the world, I met aliens, I was almost killed by a Dalek, I traveled through time… you can't just _imagine _all that!"

"Actually, the chemicals in your brain–" the doctor started, but Rose cut him off.

"No, I – I don't want a technical explanation, I want the Doctor!" Rose said desperately. It had to have been real…

"I'm sorry, Rose. I'm the only doctor here," the doctor told her. "It was a dream. Just accept that."

"No!" Rose cried. "He's out there, somewhere. I know it! And I'm going to find him!"

She got up and tried to run out of the room, but the doctor grabbed her arm and injected her with something.

"Hey! Let me go!" Rose yelled, trying to pull away, but whatever he'd injected her with made it hard for her to move, and she thought maybe it would be best if she just went to sleep for a little while…

When she woke up, she was on a hard surface. She opened her eyes and saw that she was in the TARDIS. She would have been relieved, except… where was the Doctor?

She got up and looked around. He wasn't in the control room. Maybe he was outside…

She opened the TARDIS doors and stepped out. There he was, lying on the ground.

And there, in front of him, was a Dalek.

She looked at the Dalek, looked at the Doctor, arrived at a horribly logical conclusion, and screamed. The Dalek hadn't noticed her before, but when she screamed, it looked up and saw her.

"EXTERMINATE!" it yelled, and shot at her. Luckily, the TARDIS seemed to have a force field.

Rose stumbled back into the TARDIS, shut the door, and collapsed on the ground.

This wasn't real. This_ couldn't_ be real. He was the Doctor, he wasn't allowed to die. He was supposed to always be there, grinning his manic grin at her, taking her hand and leading her into the heart of danger, but always out again, and somehow managing to save the world at the same time.

He couldn't die.

Maybe… maybe he was just unconscious. Maybe the force field extended to him, and the Dalek was just hoping it would disappear or something, maybe he was still alive…

She knew it was a long shot, but it was all she had.

She got out of the TARDIS again and went over to him. She placed her hand on his chest, trying to feel his double heartbeat… but there was nothing.

She looked up at the Dalek and realized that it was about to shoot her.

She didn't care.

The Doctor was dead.

And then she saw it, the beam of light coming at her, and–

She opened her eyes.

How was she not dead? She'd seen the Dalek shooting her, she'd felt it… so why wasn't she dead?

She tried to sit up, but she was chained down. She turned her head to the left and saw that there was someone in the bed next to hers, also chained down. Her eyes… everything was so blurry, so at this distance she couldn't tell for sure. But the person looked a lot like the Doctor.

Her heart twisted when she remembered that he was…

"Well, Rose Tyler, you've done it now," the man who should be dead said to her.

"Doctor! You're alive!" she cried, amazed. "How…?"

"Well, if I am, it's no thanks to you," the Doctor told her. "You were completely useless back there."

"Sorry…" Rose whispered.

"Well, I'm getting out of here," the Doctor said, sitting up, and Rose realized he must have unlocked his bonds with the sonic screwdriver. She waited for him to get her out too, but he just started walking away.

"Doctor, what about me?" she asked. The Doctor turned to her.

"I don't want you anymore, Rose," he said, and she stared at him in shock. "You're a liability. You almost got me killed. Again. That's happened too many times for me to just ignore it. Goodbye, Rose Tyler."

Then he turned and walked out.

"Come back!" Rose yelled. "COME BACK! Don't leave me here! DOCTOR!"

But he was gone, and she heard a female voice say, "Excitement levels critical. Sedative administered."

"Wait, stop! No! You can't do that to me!" she yelled.

And then everything went black.

She woke up. She was no longer in the bed. She was lying on some hard, flat surface. She groaned when she remembered what had happened.

The Doctor had abandoned her.

Her heart broke at the realization. The Doctor, _her _Doctor, the only one she really trusted anymore… he'd left her.

She wanted to go back to sleep. At least then she could forget the pain for a while. Maybe if she tried to escape, they'd give her some more sedative.

She opened her eyes and looked around in amazement.

She was back in the TARDIS. The Doctor was standing over her, holding a syringe. He dropped it instantly when he saw her looking up at him.

"Oh, Rose, thank goodness you're all right!" he cried, dropping to his knees and taking her hand. He helped her sit up.

What was going on? Just a little while ago he'd told her he didn't want her anymore.

"Rose, what do you remember? I need you to tell me. What happened after you drank that stuff in the restaurant?" the Doctor asked her.

"I…" Rose said, confused. "I woke up. I was in a hospital. On Earth. Why?"

"Keep going, Rose. Tell me everything that happened from then until you woke up just now."

"I was in a hospital," Rose repeated. "They told me I'd been there since… since the shop exploded. Since I met you. And then no one remembered you except me, and the doctor – the hospital doctor – told me I'd imagined all of it. And I tried to get out, but they… knocked me out."

"Go on," the Doctor told her.

"Then when I woke up, I was in the TARDIS," she said. "But you weren't. So I went outside and you were lying on the ground. And there was a Dalek, and I thought… I thought you were dead. And then it shot me, but somehow I didn't die, because I woke up, and I was lying in a bed. Maybe a hospital bed… and I was chained down. And you were there, in the bed next to mine. And you got mad at me for not saving you from the Dalek. And I'm sorry, I really am," she told him. "I would have, I would have at least tried, even if it got me killed, if I'd just woken up a little sooner…"

The Doctor's face softened. "It's all right," he said.

"Then you got up, and you…" Rose stopped. He knew what he'd done. Why was she telling him?

"What did I do?" the Doctor asked her with a strange look on his face. She realized that he honestly didn't know what had happened. She wondered how he could have forgotten.

She couldn't tell him what he'd done. It was too painful…

"Nothing," she said quickly. "It doesn't matter."

The Doctor took her chin and tipped it so she had to look him in the eyes.

"Please, Rose," he said gently. "I need to know."

"You left," she said. "You left me there. You told me I was a liability, and you didn't want me anymore. And then you left."

"Oh, Rose," the Doctor whispered, hugging her tightly.

"And then they sedated me," Rose said into his jacket. "And when I woke up, I was here."

"Rose," he said, leaning her back, holding her by the shoulders and looking her in the eyes. "Please believe me when I say that I would never, _never_ leave you. None of that was real. It was a drug. Someone drugged you through that drink. It was meant to force you to live out your worst nightmares, over and over. I got it out of your system as quickly as I could… oh, Rose, I'm so sorry…"

Her worst nightmares. She blushed a bit when she realized that they had all been about losing the Doctor in some way.

The Doctor looked shaken. "Whoever did this is rich," he said. "Very rich. That kind of drug isn't cheap. And they know me, too. They know how to hurt me. This is bad."

"How to hurt you?" Rose asked. Had they drugged him, too?

"I could hear you," the Doctor said, pain in his eyes. "They fixed the drug so I could hear everything you said. When you screamed, it… and I couldn't help you, not until I found the antidote."

He'd been able to hear her? She thought back frantically. What had she said?

"I have a sample of the drug now, so I can trace it back to whoever sold it. And they'll tell me who bought it," the Doctor said.

"What if they won't tell you?" Rose asked.

"They will," the Doctor said quietly, and the look in his eyes would have terrified Rose if she hadn't known that he was on her side. "Trust me, Rose. They will."


	2. An Old Friend

Chapter 2: An Old Friend

The Doctor traced the drug back to a shop on some planet with a name Rose couldn't pronounce. He landed the TARDIS in the alley next to the shop and got out. Rose followed him.

"You don't have to do this," she told him. "You got the drug out of me. I'm fine, see? We don't have to…"

"Yes, we do," the Doctor told her. "See, the person who drugged you might come after you again. And I won't let that happen. Plus, they've already hurt you. So I'm going to hurt them."

He entered the shop, with Rose right behind him. He walked right up to the alien behind the counter.

"Hello," he said pleasantly, but with a distinct undercurrent of menace. "I'm the Doctor. This is Rose. About a week ago you sold someone this drug."

He held up the vial with the drug sample in it.

"Now, the person you sold it to used it to cause Rose to live out her worst nightmares. So I need you to tell me who you sold it to, so I can go hurt them."

"Sorry, I can't tell you," the alien said. "Customer confidentiality."

The Doctor leaned over the counter so he was right in the alien's face.

"There's a saying," he told it, growling a bit in his throat. "If the customer isn't happy, nobody's happy. And I'm a customer. And I'm not happy right now, which means that you are about to be _very_ unhappy, unless you tell me who you sold that drug to."

"A-all right, no need to get angry," the alien squeaked. "Just let me pull it up here…"

The Doctor leaned back, waiting. The alien typed something on its device, and suddenly the Doctor and Rose were encased in a plastic-looking box.

"Sorry," the alien said, not looking sorry at all. "I've been paid to deliver you to the master. He's a customer, too. And his happiness is more important than yours."

The alien pushed a button on its device. The box dematerialized with them inside it and rematerialized in a different room.

Everything was white. The floor, the walls, the furniture… everything.

"Whoever he is, this guy needs some color in his life," Rose said, looking around. The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and tried to open the box, but it didn't work. He sighed and leaned against the box's wall.

"I'm sorry, Rose," he told her. "This is my fault."

"No, it's not," she said, coming to stand beside him and taking his hand. "There was no way you could have known."

"I'll get us out of here," he told her, trying to think of a way. "I promise."

She looked up at him, and he could see in her eyes that she believed it. She absolutely believed that he would save them.

He knew he didn't deserve that kind of trust.

"The master will see you now," the alien from the shop told them, shuffling into the room and pressing a button on its device. A chair materialized, facing away from them.

"Big ego, likes dramatics," the Doctor whispered to Rose. "Probably a little bit crazy."

"Like you, you mean?" Rose whispered back, and he had to smile. "How do you know?"

"Well, he obviously has a big ego if he's making that alien call him "master." Most people like him are at least a little crazy. And I know he likes dramatics because that chair is facing away from us, and in a minute he's going to swivel it around so he's facing us, trying to make a dramatic entrance."

The chair started turning, and the man in the chair smiled at them. They gasped.

"_You!_" Rose exclaimed.

"I'll bet you never expected to see me again," said Henry Van Statten.


	3. Stay With Me

Chapter 3: Stay With Me

"They were going to wipe my memory," Mr. Van Statten told them, standing up and pacing back and forth. "Me! But I escaped, and I hitched a ride. I found an alien and hitched a ride off of Earth. And then… I found you. I'd sworn revenge on you, you know… Doctor."

"But why?" the Doctor asked asked.

"It was your fault! If the two of you had never entered my museum, that… that creature would never have gotten out, and I would still be the most powerful man in the world! But ah, well… now I have you."

Van Statten went back to his chair and sat down. He snapped his fingers. The alien pressed a few buttons on its device, and manacles appeared around the Doctor's wrists. Then the front wall of the box disappeared. The Doctor tried to get out, but he was chained to the wall. The alien came in and grabbed Rose's free hand, yanking her away from him.

"No!" he yelled, pulling at his chains. He tried to grab the sonic screwdriver, but he couldn't reach it. "Rose!"

"Ah, yes," Van Statten said. "Dear little _Rose_."

The alien pressed a few more buttons and then there were handcuffs around Rose's wrists too, chaining her to Van Statten's chair. Van Statten reached up and caressed her cheek, and she leaned as far away from him as she could get.

"You know, it's really wonderful, how much you care for her," Van Statten remarked. "Because it gives me something I can use against you."

He started to motion to the alien, then stopped. He reached over and took its device.

"I want to do this myself," he said, and pushed a button. Rose screamed in pain.

The Doctor couldn't stand it.

"What do you want?" he asked. "What do you want from me? I'll do anything, just please, let her go!"

"Oh, sorry, but I can't do that," Van Statten said. "What I want is to see you hurting. And thanks to that Dalek creature, I know that there's no better way to hurt you… than to hurt_ her._"

He pressed another button, and Rose screamed again. The Doctor yanked at his handcuffs, trying to break free.

"Let her _go!_" he yelled.

"Or what?" Van Statten said, almost amused. "You're not exactly in any position to do anything."

The Doctor twisted around like a pretzel, trying to reach the sonic screwdriver. If he could just get to it…

It fell out of his pocket onto the ground. He poked and prodded it with his foot, trying to get it to the right setting. Then he kicked it around so it was facing Van Statten.

"Oh, what are you going to do with that?" Van Statten asked curiously. "What does that thing do? I think I'd better take that away from you before you hurt someone."

He motioned to the alien, and it walked towards him and picked the sonic screwdriver up. But not before the Doctor pressed it one last time with his foot, and his handcuffs disappeared. He ran over to the shocked Van Statten and took the alien device.

"All right, Van Statten. Which button releases her?" he asked. Van Staten pointed shakily to a button. The Doctor knew the man was lying. He let his finger hover over the button for a moment, then pressed a different one. Instantly, handcuffs appeared around Van Statten's wrists, shackling him to the chair. The Doctor pressed another button, and Rose's handcuffs disappeared. She ran to him and hugged him, and he hugged her back, crushing her to him. When she let go, he turned to the alien and held out his hand. Reluctantly, the alien handed him the sonic screwdriver.

"Thank you," he said, pressing another button on the alien device. Handcuffs appeared around the alien's wrists, chaining it to the side of the box.

"I'll deal with _that_ later," he said, turning to Van Statten.

"Let me go," the man pleaded.

"All right," the Doctor said, having absolutely no intention of actually letting him go. He pressed a button, and Van Statten writhed in silent agony.

"Oops. Wrong button," the Doctor said, pressing another one. Van Statten's body arched in pain.

"My finger must have slipped," the Doctor said. He was rather enjoying this. He moved his finger to yet another button, but Rose put her hand on his arm.

"Don't," she said quietly. He looked down at her. The pain was evident in her eyes. She was still hurting from what Van Statten had done to her. And she wanted him to stop?

"He hurt you," he said simply. "He needs to learn that if he hurts someone I care about, I'll hurt him. He deserves it."

"You've punished him already. Let him go," Rose said. The Doctor wanted to hurt Van Statten for what he'd done to Rose until he begged for mercy. But Rose, the one who'd experienced the pain, who had every reason to want him to continue, was asking him to stop.

Maybe she was just a better person than he was.

He sighed and set the device on top of the box. Either someone would come and find the two, or one of them would manage to get the device down and free themselves. Either way, they were getting off far too easy.

He walked over to Van Statten. The man trembled in terror.

"Never hurt Rose again," he said quietly so Rose couldn't hear, putting every ounce of the Oncoming Storm into his voice. "Because I promise you, if you ever come after her again, ever, I will not be so merciful. I will kill you. And I will make it as slow and as painful as I know how. And believe me, in 900 years you learn a lot of ways to torture someone to death."

Van Statten nodded, terrified. The Doctor walked over to Rose and took her hand. They walked out of the room and found that they were in the shop basement. They walked upstairs and outside, and went back into the TARDIS. Then Rose collapsed into his arms, and the tears finally came.

"I'm so sorry, Rose," he whispered into her hair.

"It's not your fault," Rose said between sobs, and he could feel her tears soaking into his jacket.

"Yes, it is. I should have made you stay in the TARDIS. I shouldn't have let you come into the store…"

"No, don't blame yourself," she said, looking up at him. He could see the pain still in her eyes, and it hurt like it was his own pain. "There was no way you could have known."

"What can I do?" he asked. He felt so helpless, and he hated the feeling. "How can I help you not hurt anymore?"

She laid her head on his chest again and whispered into his jacket something that sounded like, "Stay with me."

"I will," he told her. "Always."


End file.
